Portable data terminals that are equipped with hardware for reading decodable indicia are available in multiple varieties. Many of these are further configured with additional features, functions, and devices, all of which are combined into a single terminal that is operatively configured to collect, transmit, and receive different types of data. For example, there are many portable data terminals that can collect data using bar code scanning and imaging hardware, magnetic stripe reading hardware, and radio frequency identification tag (“RFID”) reading hardware, among many others. While such hardware permits a wide range of configurations and functionality for the portable data terminal, this hardware is often not equipped to collect data and information about the environment in the immediate vicinity of the terminal device. However, this data can be useful, and particularly beneficial if it can be correlated to the data encoded in one or more of the decodable indicia, or other data that is collected and processed by the hardware that is already incorporated into the portable data terminal.
There is therefore a need for a portable data terminal that is configured to measure, collect, and store data about the environment. It is likewise desirable that such a portable data terminal is configured to process the stored data so as to correlate the environmental data with the other data, e.g., a bar code, and/or an image.